Now that this year’s legislative session is in the rearview mirror and summer is upon us, the question is no longer whether Olympia heard the warning that farming in Washington state is in crisis.
The question is whether anyone in Olympia is willing to take the lead and solve these issues.
Well before the 2026 legislative session ended in March, Olympia knew about the crisis, but ultimately did nothing. The numbers were not hidden. Farmers and agricultural groups around the state have been quite clear: Washington’s family farms are not simply facing a difficult season or two. They are facing a viability crisis threatening their entire existence.
And yet, during the legislative session, Olympia all but ignored it.
Washington farmers cannot wait until December for lawmakers to begin thinking about the state of agriculture. They cannot survive another round of sympathetic speeches, listening sessions, task forces, and vague promises that “we understand agriculture is important.”
Understanding is not enough. Sympathy is not enough. Silence is not enough.
We need solutions now.
The problems crushing Washington farms are not mysterious. They are also not solely caused by global markets, federal actions, weather, or forces beyond the reach of state government. Many of the most damaging pressures farmers face today are state-created, state-managed, or state-amplified.
That means state leaders, more than anyone else, have the authority and responsibility to do something about them.
Labor costs in Washington are skyrocketing
Washington farms want to pay their workers well. They know their employees. They understand that farmworkers are skilled, essential, and deserving of respect. But a labor policy that ignores the unique and seasonal realities of agriculture does not protect farmworkers if it diminishes or eliminates the very income they depend on.
One Wapato farmer saw labor costs increase by $2 million in just two years. Why? Because of the state’s new overtime requirements. That farm had to make painful decisions to survive. The sad result was a reduced workforce and fewer productive acres.
Colorado recently passed legislation to adjust its agricultural overtime system. Washington does not have to copy Colorado’s approach word for word, but it should have the courage to ask the same basic question: what needs to change to protect farmworkers and keep farms viable, when the current policies aren’t doing either of those things?
Where is the legislator who will stand up and say that farmworkers and farm employers rise or fall together?
Where is the leader willing to admit that forcing farms to cut hours, reduce crews, automate faster, shrink production, or leave crops unplanted-as the new overtime law has done-is not a pro-worker outcome?
Where is the serious proposal for a solution?
High fuel costs are another problem the state has dramatically exacerbated.
With the Climate Commitment Act, on-farm fuel was, by law, supposed to be exempt. Yet many farmers have continued to be charged anyway. For many, this elusive promise of an exemption has turned into a bureaucratic joke, as farms are paying money that should never have been taken in the first place.
So, whether the solution is a workable rebate, a point-of-sale exemption, or some other practical system, the fact remains: if the law says agricultural fuel is exempt, farmers should not be forced to pay first and fight later. It’s the state’s duty-not anyone else’s-to solve the problem.
Labor & Industries costs continue to climb
Employee insurance remains a major cost as Washington continues to operate under a state-controlled monopoly that leaves employers without the competitive options available in other states. As Pam Lewison with the Washington Policy Center has pointed out, opening the marketplace to competition could give employers more flexibility and help control costs.
Excessive and even abusive state regulation is killing farms.
State agencies such as the Department of Health and the Department of Ecology have shown themselves willing to overstep state law and operate in a rogue fashion when left unchecked. Who has the boldness to hold these agencies accountable?
Farmers are not asking for special treatment. They’re asking for the state to honor its own law.
At some point, Washington policymakers have to admit the structure they’ve built is making it harder to farm here than almost anywhere else in the country. Lawmakers need to take a serious look in the mirror and ask, “How can we stop making impossible conditions worse?”
Agriculture needs to start seeing policy that recognizes the difference between a farm and an office building, between a harvest window based on nature and bureaucratic theory based on activist ideologies.
Now is when serious lawmakers should be sitting down with farmers, farmworkers, economists, agency leaders, and agricultural organizations to develop actual solutions. Waiting until the next legislative session begins is a choice-the wrong choice.
By the time lawmakers return to Olympia, many farms will already have made next year’s decisions. Some will have cut acreage or reduced their number of employees. Others will have taken on more debt. And too many will have decided they cannot keep going.
A farm that closes in July cannot be saved by a committee hearing in January.
Washington agriculture can no longer afford passive silence. We cannot simply assume that farmers will “weather through it” because they always have before. That assumption is not only lazy-it’s dangerous.
Farms are disappearing. Margins are collapsing. Input costs are rising. Labor costs are unsustainable. Regulatory costs are compounding. Fuel taxes continue to hit producers who were supposed to be exempt. And every time Olympia delays, the future of food production in this state becomes less secure.
So the questions should be asked plainly:
Who are the champions willing to lead?
What are the solutions most urgently needed to sustain agriculture in Washington?
Which legislators are willing to put their names on serious reforms?
Which agencies are willing to fix the problems within their control?
Which leaders will move beyond words and into action?
Farmers, agricultural organizations, community leaders, and consumers all need to be asking these questions. We need to keep asking these questions until we get answers.
There is time to act before the next legislative session. There is time to develop solutions and build support. But there is not time to waste.
Washington farmers do not need another year of condescending sympathy, while simultaneously being regulated into extinction. They do not need more silence from people who know there is a problem but are too afraid to say so.
Agriculture in Washington needs legislators to prove they understand what is at stake.
It needs leaders.
It needs solutions.
And it needs them now.
Ben Tindall is the executive director of Save Family Farming.